The money comes from Proposition 1B, the 2006 voter-approved transportation bond, Proposition 1A, the voter-approved High-Speed Rail Bond and the State Transportation Improvement Program. The High-Speed Rail Bond program targets some funds at connectivity with future high-Speed rail service. LACMTA used its Measure R funds, approved by the Los Angeles County voters in 2008, to aid in leveraging state funding to Los Angeles County.

Projects benefiting from $390 million in state bond funds include $264 million for the Regional Connector project, which will improve connectivity county-wide by linking the Blue, Expo and Gold lines via a 1.9-mile extension of light-rail tracks beneath downtown Los Angeles and $61 million, included in the current Life of Project for the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor, a new 8.5-mile light-rail line that will connect the Green Line with the Exposition Line and provide a link to the Los Angeles Airport.

Another project to receive a portion of the funding, $45.4 million, will aid in the purchase of 78 light-rail vehicles for system-wide service expansion and for use on future light-rail lines that will open during the next few years.

"These funds will help us continue to expand and upgrade the LACMTA system," said CEO Art Leahy. "They are slotted for bus and rail projects that will work together to buy us improved mobility and move us closer to our goal of creating a 21st Century transit network for our region."

The projects were included in the Long Range Transportation Plan and were chosen because they already are underway and the new round of funding will ensure they stay on schedule.